Dental impressions are taken to create molds of a persons dentition. These molds are either utilized as study models or used to fabricate various dental appliances by the dental professionals. The dental appliances fabricated include cast partial dentures, acrylic night guards, snore guards or other dental devices to fit the mouth.
Problems do arise when the finished dental product is delivered to the patient and does not fit the mouth. When this occurs, it is a very costly error. It is often time consuming for the dentist to adjust the prosthesis. After a given allotted time to adjust the appliance the dentist may elect to abandon the particular item and take new impressions to begin again. He must retrace his steps with the case and duplicate completed procedures. When this happens, the inventor feels that the dentist has made no profitable gain on the case.
The overhead of office chairtime and materials is costly. Besides this the dentist/laboratory relations suffer. Also, the dentist could have lost the confidence in the instance of a dubious patient. And worst of all, the second appliance may not fit. An ill-fitting appliance is detrimental to the mission of the dentist office.
Often, the origin for ill-fitting dental prostheses is error in model accuracy. To eliminate some of the frustration, the models engendered from the impressions must be verified for accuracy. Model verification is not now performed in the dental profession. Before time and effort is spent by the laboratory technicians in fabricating dental prostheses, model accuracy should be verified by the dentist.
In U.S. Pat. No. 386,004, inventor Eddy discloses a repair clamp for spectacles. The use for this device is to stabilize three different members. These members are pulled together into a specific relation and held in a clamp. The device is not used for measuring.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,200,497, D. J. Goodfriend shows a method to transfer dental anatomical relations onto an articulator. This device relates three different points. It uses these points to align models on an articulator. It does not verify an exact measurement. Even if this device were used several times on the same individual three different measurements would be obtained.
In U.S. Pat. No. 1,385,070, Davison discloses a dental bite taking device. This device also takes a measurement in order to transfer information regarding relationships. This is used to set articulators; it is not used as an accuracy verifier.